Manchester City beat RB Leipzig 3-2, making it three wins from four for Enzo Maresca in Europe this season.
Despite a controlled first half performance from Manchester City, having 66% of the ball, the only thing that separated the two sides at half-time was an unfortunate own-goal from Castello Lukeba, turning a Nico O’Reilly cutback into his own net in the 37th minute.
But things sparked to life in the second half, with Ridle Baku equalising after just four minutes in the second half, making for an interesting game.
Just nine minutes later, Enzo Fernandez made it 2-1, ghosting into the box to power a header past Maarten Vandevoordt between the sticks, before Antonio Nusa fired one back brilliantly just three minutes later to equalise again.
In the 78th minute though, the inevitable happened, Erling Haaland arriving with a sliding finish to make it 3-2, getting on the end of a lovely ball across the box from Elliot Anderson and securing all three points for the Citizens.
In this article, we’ll cover
First half control
Manchester City took immediate control in the game, with Enzo Maresca setting his side up in a familiar 3-1-6 shape on the ball.
This saw O’Reilly moving into the left pocket as part of a midfield diamond from left-back, with Fernandez operating on the right side of this diamond, Anderson at the base and Rayan Cherki with this more central “free” role within it.
RB Leipzig were looking to press from a 4-3-3 shape, using their wide forwards to press up onto Manchester City’s wide centre-backs, while Romulo pressed onto Abdukodir Khusanov in the central centre-back position.
The Leipzig midfield three would then shuffle across accordingly depending on which side the ball was on, as Cherki often dropped deep, closer to Anderson, in order to overload the midfield 4v3.
City were finding it easy to control the game, having an overload in their build up phase, which allowed them to push Leipzig back, where they would take shape in more of a 5-4-1 defensive block.
Ezechiel Banzuzi‘s role was looking after Fernandez on the right side of Manchester City’s midfield diamond, however, with the Argentine often pushing high into the last line, Banzuzi was often taking up a right centre-back position in a back five.
As Leipzig were pushed deeper, both Nusa and Brajan Gruda were also dragged deeper, looking to make the German side more compact in a 5-4-1 shape as City pinned Leipzig inside their own half.
With both wingers being pushed deeper and the entire unit dropping off, Leipzig found it difficult to get out, whether that be finding ways to jump and press Manchester City, or finding avenues to get out in transition when they did regain possession.
Box crasher Fernandez
While Manchester City had good control in the first half, their penetration and creativity was somewhat lacking, with their only goal of the half coming from a Lukeba own goal, as O’Reilly cut it back across goal.
But in the second half, we saw Manchester City score a goal reminiscent of exactly how Maresca expects his system to produce advantages.
Iliman Ndiaye received the ball out on the left, initially having time to face up against Ridle Baku 1v1. But instead of looking to beat his man, Ndiaye cut back onto his stronger right-foot, delivering an inswinging cross towards the back post.
Having such a dominant box presence in Haaland is where teams struggle to deal with this, as multiple defenders are drawn to the big Norwegian, allowing Fernandez to ghost behind them and head it home.
Antonio Nusa dazzles
The bright spark of the game from an RB Leipzig perspective was clearly Nusa down that left flank, scoring the second goal to level things up, but also providing moments of quality on the break, getting Leipzig out of their own half on a few occasions with excellent 1v2/1v3 scenarios, manipulating the ball with such purpose to create mini 1v1 scenarios and manage each defensive player.
We saw this in the first half when Nusa received the ball inside his own half, oriented his body in a way to put Phil Foden (who was looking to apply pressure from behind) on his back, before engaging Anderson by taking a touch inside towards him, and then bursting back on the outside to arrive in more of a 1v1 with Matheus Nunes.
Nusa has a level of ingenuity to his game, finding ways to play through passing lanes that are theoretically “cut off”, manipulating his opponents and outplaying them in any area on the pitch.
But Nusa isn’t just a player who is aesthetically pleasing to watch, he can also provide goals and assists, taking his goal really well to equalise and get Leipzig back in the game at 2-2.
After an inside diagonal pass from Gruda, finding Banzuzi, the young midfielder was able to find Christopher Nkunku, who played a first time bounce pass over into the path of Nusa.
The Norwegian starlet managed to stretch and take the ball under control with his first touch, taking it slightly out towards his left, but settled himself well to strike it with his second touch on his weaker left-foot, finding the bottom right corner.
But despite an excellent performance from Nusa, it was his Norwegian teammate who called game, inevitably scoring in the 78th minute despite only having 18 touches in the game, doing what he does best and arriving on time to score his 14th goal of the season.